Summary: Homework from the night before: I will assign a simple homework assignment the night before that requires students to take a look at five physical characteristics that they have and compare them to their parents physical characteristics (for example, they could use hair color and style, eye color, height, and skin tone). This will get students into the mindset of the topic of genetics and hopefully generate some curiosity about which traits they inherited from their parents and which they did not. If students do not know their biological parents, then they could research a famous family or look at a friends' family.
I will use this lesson to gage students' knowledge of the topic of genetics. I pass out a Learning Goals Inventory worksheet to each student and have them fill it out. This worksheet will list three of the learning goals for this unit. Students are to write any concepts or terms that they already know regarding the learning goal. This pre-assessment will give me an idea of what concepts I need to focus less or more on. I will allow students to dicuss their ideas and brainstorm quietly with their partners. After spending about 10 minutes on this worksheet, we will then dive into an inquiry activity that requires students to predict the results of Mendel's genetic pea plant crosses. I will briefly skim the pres-assessment worksheet while walking around the room guiding students' work. The inquiry activity should take about 30 minutes. We will discuss the conclusions students reached and then begin taking notes on the basic concepts and terms in Chapter 11 of their textbook, such as Mendel's work with pea plants and his results. I will end the class by relating the terms we took notes on to the Mendel Mystery inquiry activity.
Objectives: Students will demonstrate their prior knowledge of genetics by completing a Learning Goals Inventory worksheet. Students will interpret the results of Gregor Mendel and relate the results to the genetics terms we use today.
Inquiry worksheets from Biology Inquiries, pg. 104-109
Instruction: Opening:
As students walk into the room, I will be standing at the doorway, greeting each student and telling them to take out homework from the previous night. I will check off the homework and take attendance simultaneously by walking around the room, glancing at each paper and giving them a check plus, check, check minus, or zero depending on how much effort they put into the assignment. As I walk around the room, I will encourage students to discuss with their lab partner their results that they found.
Once the homework is checked off and attendance is taken care of, I will open discussion to the entire class.
"What sort of characteristics did you look at?"
"Did anyone find anything puzzling?"
-some students may point out that both of their parents have brown eyes, while they have blue eyes.
"Does anyone have any ideas or explanations for why you don't always have the same traits as your parents?"
This discussion should spark the students' interest about how genes are passed from parents to offspring. It may cause them to recall prior knowledge about dominant and recessive traits. I will then explain that we will be starting a unit on genetics and all of their questions will be answered. This opening discussion should take about 15-20 minutes of the class period.
Middle:
Since middle school curriculums touch upon genetics, I want to have an idea about what students already know about the topic. I will explain this to the students and introduce the Learning Goals Inventory worksheet. This worksheet lists three of the most basic learning goals for the unit and then leaves space for students to write down any concepts, terms, or processes that students already know about genetics. I will use this worksheet to discover any misconceptions students have about the material and will be able to gage how in depth I need to cover the basic material. This will allow more time in the unit for me to go more in depth with a certain topic. Students will be given about 10 minutes to fill out this worksheet and I will allow them to discuss any ideas they have with their partners.
The remaining 30 minutes of class will be dedicated to the first part of an inquiry-based activity that requires students to put themsleves in Gregor Mendel's shoes and follow his process of crossing pea plants. I will hand out the worksheets and ask for a volunteer to read the first paragraph that introduces Mendel and his experiments.
The inquiry activity proceeds as follows:
1. Hand out student worksheet.
2. Write on the board the seven crosses that Mendel conducted:
Characteristic
Traits and crosses
Height
Tall x Short
Flower Color
Purple x White
Flower Position
Axial x Terminal
Seed Color
Yellow x Green
Seed Shape
Round x Wrinkled
Pod Shape
Inflated x Constricted
Pod Color
Green x Yellow
3. Explain that these organisms are the parental generation.
4. Have students write their predictions of what the First Filial generation will look like.
-explain what filial means ("son" or "daughter" in Latin). They may work with the person sitting next to them. Students may guess the offspring will show a mixture of the two traits being crosses.
5. I will show them what Mendel actually obtained when he performed these experiments. (All of the crosses showed the dominant trait, or the first trait listed in the chart)
6. In a whole group discussion, ask students why they think the other trait for each characteristic disappeared and whether they think that trait is gone for good. Don't give the answer!
7. Show students the results Mendel obtained when he crossed the F1 generation with each other. Explain that this set of offspring is called the F2 generation.
8. Have students come up with their own explanations for why the other trait (the recessive one) showed up again in the F2 generation.
9. Students complete the three analysis questions at the end of the worksheet. It is homework if they don't finish in class.
Closing: The last few minutes of class will be spent reviewing what we learned from the inquiry activity. I will ask for volunteers to share their ideas about why the second trait disappeared in the F1 generation and why it came back in the F2 generation. I will not necessarily give students the correct answers because I want them to read in their textbooks for homework, but I will tell students if they are close to the actual results. I will make sure to stress that it's ok if students still don't understand the concept completely because it was meant to be an inquiry activity where not all the answers are given. The homework will then be assigned to be completed for the next day. I will stress the importance of doing this homework because we will use it to begin tomorrow's lesson.
Homework: Complete the first three analysis questions of the Mendel inquiry activity. Read pages 308-316 of your textbook. Generate ten questions based off of the material you just read about. At least five questions have to be in-depth (how or why) questions, and the other five can be basic definition or procedure questions. Write the questions on one sheet of paper and create an answer sheet on another piece of paper.
Assessments:
1. Pre-assessment- Learning Goals Inventory
2. Formative assessment- I will walk around the room as students are working on the inquiry activity to make sure they are on task. I will listen to their ideas and gage their level of knowledge by how in depth their ideas are.
3. Formative assessment- I will be collecting the analysis questions and counting it as a classwork grade.
Summary:
Homework from the night before: I will assign a simple homework assignment the night before that requires students to take a look at five physical characteristics that they have and compare them to their parents physical characteristics (for example, they could use hair color and style, eye color, height, and skin tone). This will get students into the mindset of the topic of genetics and hopefully generate some curiosity about which traits they inherited from their parents and which they did not. If students do not know their biological parents, then they could research a famous family or look at a friends' family.
I will use this lesson to gage students' knowledge of the topic of genetics. I pass out a Learning Goals Inventory worksheet to each student and have them fill it out. This worksheet will list three of the learning goals for this unit. Students are to write any concepts or terms that they already know regarding the learning goal. This pre-assessment will give me an idea of what concepts I need to focus less or more on. I will allow students to dicuss their ideas and brainstorm quietly with their partners. After spending about 10 minutes on this worksheet, we will then dive into an inquiry activity that requires students to predict the results of Mendel's genetic pea plant crosses. I will briefly skim the pres-assessment worksheet while walking around the room guiding students' work. The inquiry activity should take about 30 minutes. We will discuss the conclusions students reached and then begin taking notes on the basic concepts and terms in Chapter 11 of their textbook, such as Mendel's work with pea plants and his results. I will end the class by relating the terms we took notes on to the Mendel Mystery inquiry activity.
Objectives:
Students will demonstrate their prior knowledge of genetics by completing a Learning Goals Inventory worksheet.
Students will interpret the results of Gregor Mendel and relate the results to the genetics terms we use today.
Materials:
Learning Goals Inventory worksheet
Inquiry worksheets from Biology Inquiries, pg. 104-109
Instruction:
Opening:
As students walk into the room, I will be standing at the doorway, greeting each student and telling them to take out homework from the previous night. I will check off the homework and take attendance simultaneously by walking around the room, glancing at each paper and giving them a check plus, check, check minus, or zero depending on how much effort they put into the assignment. As I walk around the room, I will encourage students to discuss with their lab partner their results that they found.
Once the homework is checked off and attendance is taken care of, I will open discussion to the entire class.
"What sort of characteristics did you look at?"
"Did anyone find anything puzzling?"
-some students may point out that both of their parents have brown eyes, while they have blue eyes.
"Does anyone have any ideas or explanations for why you don't always have the same traits as your parents?"
This discussion should spark the students' interest about how genes are passed from parents to offspring. It may cause them to recall prior knowledge about dominant and recessive traits. I will then explain that we will be starting a unit on genetics and all of their questions will be answered. This opening discussion should take about 15-20 minutes of the class period.
Middle:
Since middle school curriculums touch upon genetics, I want to have an idea about what students already know about the topic. I will explain this to the students and introduce the Learning Goals Inventory worksheet. This worksheet lists three of the most basic learning goals for the unit and then leaves space for students to write down any concepts, terms, or processes that students already know about genetics. I will use this worksheet to discover any misconceptions students have about the material and will be able to gage how in depth I need to cover the basic material. This will allow more time in the unit for me to go more in depth with a certain topic. Students will be given about 10 minutes to fill out this worksheet and I will allow them to discuss any ideas they have with their partners.
The remaining 30 minutes of class will be dedicated to the first part of an inquiry-based activity that requires students to put themsleves in Gregor Mendel's shoes and follow his process of crossing pea plants. I will hand out the worksheets and ask for a volunteer to read the first paragraph that introduces Mendel and his experiments.
The inquiry activity proceeds as follows:
1. Hand out student worksheet.
2. Write on the board the seven crosses that Mendel conducted:
4. Have students write their predictions of what the First Filial generation will look like.
-explain what filial means ("son" or "daughter" in Latin). They may work with the person sitting next to them. Students may guess the offspring will show a mixture of the two traits being crosses.
5. I will show them what Mendel actually obtained when he performed these experiments. (All of the crosses showed the dominant trait, or the first trait listed in the chart)
6. In a whole group discussion, ask students why they think the other trait for each characteristic disappeared and whether they think that trait is gone for good. Don't give the answer!
7. Show students the results Mendel obtained when he crossed the F1 generation with each other. Explain that this set of offspring is called the F2 generation.
8. Have students come up with their own explanations for why the other trait (the recessive one) showed up again in the F2 generation.
9. Students complete the three analysis questions at the end of the worksheet. It is homework if they don't finish in class.
Closing:
The last few minutes of class will be spent reviewing what we learned from the inquiry activity. I will ask for volunteers to share their ideas about why the second trait disappeared in the F1 generation and why it came back in the F2 generation. I will not necessarily give students the correct answers because I want them to read in their textbooks for homework, but I will tell students if they are close to the actual results. I will make sure to stress that it's ok if students still don't understand the concept completely because it was meant to be an inquiry activity where not all the answers are given. The homework will then be assigned to be completed for the next day. I will stress the importance of doing this homework because we will use it to begin tomorrow's lesson.
Homework: Complete the first three analysis questions of the Mendel inquiry activity. Read pages 308-316 of your textbook. Generate ten questions based off of the material you just read about. At least five questions have to be in-depth (how or why) questions, and the other five can be basic definition or procedure questions. Write the questions on one sheet of paper and create an answer sheet on another piece of paper.
Assessments:
1. Pre-assessment- Learning Goals Inventory
2. Formative assessment- I will walk around the room as students are working on the inquiry activity to make sure they are on task. I will listen to their ideas and gage their level of knowledge by how in depth their ideas are.
3. Formative assessment- I will be collecting the analysis questions and counting it as a classwork grade.